Tuesday, May 17, 2016

The benefits of volunteerism

For some
people volunteerism might seem to be a total waste of time. The time that
volunteers spend on helping others, some would rather use to either earn money
or for their own pleasures. However, it is not true that we don’t get any
profits from acting altruistically. It is now a well-established,
research-based knowledge, that volunteerism brings good effects not only to our
minds, but also to our bodies.

Firstly,
let’s talk about the obvious benefits of volunteering, namely – mental health
and emotion-related profits. Studies have shown, that volunteerism is
responsible for the feeling of social connectedness, helps fight a feeling of
loneliness and even depression. It increases self-confidence and gives a sense
of purpose in life. It can protect a person from isolation and be a source of a
great life satisfaction. Volunteers
themselves report higher levels of happiness, life-satisfaction, self-esteem, a
sense of control over their life, and improved physical health.

Some people
might find it surprising that volunteerism was also found to be connected with
physical health. Those who volunteer when
they are younger are less like likely to come down with illnesses when they are
older, which makes volunteering a good way to prevent poor health in the
future. Studies show also that people suffering from chronic illnesses receive
higher benefits from their medical treatment when at the same time they are
volunteering. One of
the most recent longitudinal studies showed that people over 50 years of age
who were also volunteers, were less likely to develop high blood pressure than
people who weren’t volunteering (Sneed & Cohen, 2013). However, in this case
it can’t be proven that there wasn’t another factor responsible for these
results (volunteers were controlled for age, sex, race, education, baseline
blood pressure and major chronic illnesses, but they also might have been doing
other things lowering blood pressure, like eating healthier than
non-volunteers). The authors’ guess is that this connection is caused by
increased physical activity and stress reduction, which result from
volunteering (ibid.).There is some evidence, that older volunteers can benefit more from
volunteering, probably because it increases their physical and social activity
and serves as a purpose in life in a hard time of changes of social roles.
Another thing is that most studies show that positive health outcomes occur
only when a considerable amount of time is devoted to volunteering (at least
100 hours per year). However, too much volunteering might become a burden that
could lead to worse health outcomes. It has also been shown, that health
profits can be derived from volunteering only as long as it is being done for
altruistic reasons, and not for personal gain (Konrath, Fuhrel-Forbis, Lou, Brown, 2012).

There are
also other dimensions in which volunteering serves us. It can have a great
impact on our skills, making us more desirable on the labour market. Depending
on the type of activity we take up, we can gain many new abilities or improve
old ones. Particular job skills as well as wholesome career experience can make
us stand out during our next job search – it might be that one thing that will
distinguish us from other candidates and therefore win us a job. On top of
that, volunteering can widen our social circles and improve our social skills.
It is also an easy, entertaining way to explore our passions and interests.

A thorough review of 40 research papers
conducted in 2013 gave solid evidence for connection of volunteerism with
longer lifespan (by 22%), lower levels of depression, higher life satisfaction
and enhanced well-being among volunteers in comparison to non-volunteers
(Jenkinson et al., 2013). The conclusion is very simple and worth remembering:
it’s good to be good.

Sources:

Corporation for National and Community Service,
Office of Research and Policy Development (2007). The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research, Washington,
DC.

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The volunteers responsible for this blog are hosted in Greece in the framework of the European Erasmus+ programme, KA1/youth - European Voluntary Service. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained there in.